How to Become Your Own Boss

Are you unhappy with your soul-sapping job? Have you always wanted to be your own boss? Don’t just quit! You need to create a plan to fire your boss--first. In today’s business environment, small business owners have even less time to hit it big with their target customer. The key to success is not only to create a sound business concept, but also taking the time to figure out the business of running a business. Let America’s #1 small business expert Melinda Emerson “SmallBizLady” teach you her proven step-by-step method to transition from employee to entrepreneur.

The target audience for this event: Anyone who is ready to become their own boss or currently working a side business that they want to take full-time.

About the Speaker:
Melinda F. Emerson, “SmallBizLady” is America’s #1 Small Business Expert. She is an internationally renowned speaker on small business start up, business development, and social media marketing. Forbes magazine named her the #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Melinda’s small business advice is widely read reaching more than 3 million entrepreneurs each week online. She publishes a resource blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com, which is syndicated by the Huffington Post. Melinda is also the bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, 2nd Edition and the ebook How To Become a Social Media Ninja.

Don’t just be a brand builder, be a brand protector too! Learn about intellectual property and the differences between a copyright, patent, trade secret, and trademark. Learn how to utilize these legal vehicles to protect your brand and your business; and why they should be important to you and your legacy.

Many women are reluctant to actively promote their value because it feels self-serving or inauthentic. Rather than promote themselves, they prefer to believe that their work will speak for itself. Unfortunately, without the confidence and commitment to share your value with others, you may lose out on important opportunities to raise your visibility, make a bigger impact and advance within your organization.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

-What it means (and does not mean) to engage in strategic self-promotion
-Why self-promotion is challenging for so many women
-Key benefits to yourself and others when you actively promote your value
-Practical, actionable strategies to help you authentically promote your value across your organization.

Discover the three fundamental elements required to build a successful business you love! Learn what they don’t teach you in business school, and what skills you must master to foster your success. You will gain new tools—based in the neuroscience of performance—to match your business with your passions. Identify and remove obstacles entrepreneurs commonly face, and find the confidence to realize your business vision.
Takeaways:
•Understand how our education system teaches us to think in a limiting way, setting up entrepreneurs for failure (and what you can do differently)
•Learn the three-step formula to double your income, close high-paying clientele, and have major media mentions without being “big” in the industry
•Master the art of influence and communication, getting you to YES with clients, partners, and investors
•Learn three exercises and techniques based in the latest findings of neuroscience and creative psychology to drastically improve success. These will help you tap into your brain's fullest potential, increasing performance and confidence immediately.

Learn how to empower yourself with a self-empowering mindset and heart-set.

You know you need a success mindset to be successful. But what exactly is a success mindset? Maybe you are all about mindset, repeating daily affirmations, reading self-help books, watching inspiring YouTube videos, taking loads of action, and yet… not getting what you want in your business or career? Not the job you want? Not enough clients, not the right clients? Not the money you want to make? Or maybe you’re at a certain level, and you want to move to your next level but you just can’t seem to break through that inner glass ceiling?
In this session, led by Regina Huber, we will explore ways to step into a self-empowering mindset and heart-set so you can not only reach for the stars but hold them in your hands, too.

One of the most important parts of owning a business is payroll. If not done correctly, payroll can be very costly for you! In 2013 alone, the IRS issued $4.5 billion in penalties to businesses who incorrectly calculated their payroll tax. When you take into consideration the varying salaries, shift differentials, and benefit contributions, payroll can become a burden on the business owner. Even for the smallest of companies, payroll processing can be an overwhelming task.

During this webinar, we will address the following:
Mitigate risk in your payroll processing;
Streamline cashflow to ensure payroll need can be met;
Manage, retract, and retain good employees; and
Time management for business owners.

Join the iFundWomen Coaching Staff for this crowdfunding deep-dive, where you will learn:
1. What exactly rewards-based crowdfunding is
2. If you, and your product or service are right for crowdfunding
3. How to plan a successful campaign
A successful crowdfunding campaign not only gives you the cash to move your business forward, it also gives you the confidence to get to the next level in your funding journey.

Tara Bradford, Social Scientist and Expert in Personal Change Management

In this workshop you will learn:
The 4 key components of a meaningful life
The most common fears that hold us back from feeling fulfilled
How to get out of your own way
How to set goals that help you move forward towards the life you desire

Bio:
Tara Rae Bradford is a Personal Change Management Expert, Social Scientist, Success Coach and Keynote Speaker. Tara’s International Coaching Practice focuses on helping individuals feel more understood in their personal and professional relationships. She is also the Creator of Imposter to Influencer, a program that helps small business owners become their own publicists by learning how to build meaningful relationships with the media. She incorporates her background in cognitive neuroscience, biochemistry, positive psychology principles, neurolinguistics, hypnotherapy, and emotional intelligence into her work. She has been featured in Forbes, HuffPost, Thrive Global, Bustle and more! For more information please visit: www.tararaebradford.com

The Webinar is designed for women considering completing their college degree or seeking an advanced degree. The pay gap is real and is increasing between college-educated workers and workers without degrees. Women out pace men when it comes to degree completion. Workers could be losing a million dollars over their lifetime without a degree.

Adult students have very different needs than recent high school graduates and this webinar will address these concerns. Operation Graduate is a pathway for students considering returning to school but are reluctant. Operation Graduate helps student turn their prior college course, professional learning, and on-the-job experience into academic credit.

Following this webinar, you will receive additional information from Operation Graduate about how to reduce the barrier's to graduation for you and your family.

IAW has partnered with Laurel Road to provide our members with discounted interest rates on your student loans.

During this interactive think session, Laurel Road provide an overview of the new benefit and how you can utilize it to lock in a lower interest rate amidst a rising interest rate environment. The following topics will be covered:

- How do rising interest rates in the economy impact me?
- Is there any way to lock in a rate now before they increase any more?
- Is income driven repayment and/or loan forgiveness right for me?
- How will the proposed legislative changes to federal repayment programs affect me?
- What is student loan refinancing, and am I eligible?
- What are the considerations surrounding the decision of whether to refinance vs. pursue loan forgiveness?

This will be an interactive session with time for Q&A so please submit your questions.

When Carrie Kerpen co-founded Likeable Media in 2007, the social media agency was one of the first of its kind. Six years later, when she stepped up to become CEO, times had changed. The market was crowded, the competition was fierce, and she couldn’t help but compare herself to the heads of other agencies, all of whom were pretty much the same: Loud. Extroverted. Male. In order to reinvent her company to keep up with the changing times and come out on top, Carrie had only one choice: She had to work it.

What is working it? Working it is about understanding who you are, what you want, and what you bring to the table. Working it means refusing to compare yourself to others and instead focusing on your own unique super-powers. Most important, working it is the key to unlocking the biggest secret for achieving success: There is no one right way. There is only your way.

Key takeaways include:
•How to use your gut to make smarter decisions, faster
•How to tap into your network to help you avoid blind spots
•How to make your weaknesses work for you, not against you

This webinar is geared for those who are assessing their career options after a career break.

Whether you have taken time off to stay home with young children; to care for a sick parent; or to reassess your career plans, this session will provide a road map to define your values, goals and priorities, arm yourself with information, and chart your path to the job you want.

Leading Career Management Coach (CCMC) and Personal Branding Strategist, Pamela Weinberg, will help you to understand current job trends, networking strategies, resources for career research and social media job search strategies.

Laurel Road, the endorsed student loan refinancing provider of the International Association of Women is hosting a free online think session about Student Loan Best Practices for women.

The goal – to delve into the loan repayment options professionals have to choose from.
The interactive webinar on Wednesday March 7th, at 1pm EST, will discuss:
-If loan forgiveness a viable option
-If IAW members can benefit from the new federal income driven repayment programs
-How pending legislative changes may impact loan repayment
-How to lower student loan interest rates
-When to consider loan refinancing
-What the loan refinancing process looks like
-How to get the added member benefit available to IAW members

The online presentation will be followed by Q&A, so feel free to ask questions!

The road to success for any entrepreneur comes with a host of challenges. Many of these challenges are rewarding in their own right, but are challenges nonetheless.

From trying to establish a brand and stay ahead of the competition to keeping your business profitable are all real life challenges, no matter how many years you’ve been in business.

As an entrepreneur, Melissa Clark, Owner of The She Shift, has experienced the ups and downs of starting a business.

In this webinar, Melissa will discuss the steps to take to ensure success and will share some of the successes and challenges that she has personally experienced.

For anyone starting out on the entrepreneurial journey, this session will help to answer many of the questions Entrepreneurs face. Melissa will help you to understand that you’re not the first to struggle, and will uncover some of the excellent resources available to help you overcome the challenges, and get set to reap the rewards that come with building your own successful business.

Job hunting can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you're looking for your first job or applying for the CEO position of a Fortune 500 organization, there are many factors to consider.
Long gone are the days when a “one resume fits all” approach will work, and the importance of having something that will make future employers fall over themselves inviting you for an interview is vital.
In this instructive webinar, TORI-nominated, top-ranked and 3X-Certified Master Resume Writer Emily Kapit will provide you with “must know” tips and advice to help make your job search easier, and our team from Professional Diversity Network will review companies that are hiring now and how to get noticed by them.
In this webinar, you will learn the following:
•How to focus on the right roles and how to structure your job search
•Tips for preparing your resume and social profiles
•Ways to warm up your personal network
•How to get recruiters to notice your resume
•What you should talk about in informational and role-specific interviews
•Top companies that are hiring now

Technology changes rapidly and now more than ever you have hundreds of tool choices to make for your small business. As a former software engineer, Head of a Global IT division in corporate and now online technology business owner, I am here to assure there there is a simple, affordable way through this maze.

Attendees will learn:
•What technology tools you must have and which you can skip
•How to maximize your budget and avoid another $20 / month system
•The right technology choices for each stage of your business
•How to pick a tool that can grow with your needs
•Finding the right tech team who can work efficiently and partner with you for the long term
•Best practices for Entrepreneurs - from building your website to email marketing, financials and team and task management

You will leave with a clear map of what you as an entrepreneur need to market and run your online business

About the Speaker:
Lori Mercer is the founder of How She Quits. After spending 20 years in corporate leading multi-million dollar technology and marketing initiatives, Lori broke free as a Virtual Professional. Her online marketing and technology agency, LoriMercerCTO.com, serves small online businesses with strategy, marketing and implementation needs. Lori created HowSheQuits.com to help other mom's leverage their professional skills and build their own virtual businesses. Married to a firefighter and mother of 4, Lori broke into the online marketing space as the founder of a national non-profit on a mission to strengthen the marriages and families of first responders. Now more than 100,000 followers back that mission. Lori's programs, including 6 Weeks To Clients, One Day Funnel and Virtual in a Week, stress her passion to bring an efficient, innovative and professional service to the virtual world, while valuing time with family.

For any business owner or busy professional, the continued chaos of schedules, databases, email can be a huge drain on time, money and sanity. In this session, leading online business manager, Danielle Roberts,will help you to understand the steps to take to get you from chaotic and stressed to a thriving, energetic business owner.

You will learn:

• How to see your big picture and break it down into step by step implementation.
• Top tips to prioritize and manage your to do list.
• How to ensure Time-Saving Success
• Why being intentional is so important
• What tools are available to help you organize your schedule

About the Speaker:
Danielle Roberts is an online business manager who spends her days working with entrepreneurs to develop their business strategy, organize their business and help them in handling their day to day operations through her business Legacy Creative Company. As an author and mentor to Christian business women through her personal brand, she loves to show them how weaving faith into their business is attainable. She is a wife and a mom, and she strives to keep her family a priority and maintain a solid relationship with her husband. She loves coffee, Jesus, date night and chasing after her kids.

It’s the end of the year…and one commonality all businesses have, time to prepare for tax submissions. Taxes are overwhelming but they’re an inevitable part of running your business. During this webinar, Brian Walls will be delivering key points and tips that uncover the often overlooked tax deadlines and necessary information. You will leave feeling at ease about the tax and financial terminology and strategies to make the annual tax exercise more efficient in the future.

About the Speaker:
Brian Walls, who leads the WFG's team, has decades of experience within the financial services industry. To Walls Financial Group he brings financial planning and investment management experience.

Prior to launching Walls Financial Group, Brian was Senior Financial Planner with The Ayco Company L.P., a Goldman Sachs Company, where he provided comprehensive financial counseling to high-net-worth senior executives of major corporations.

Brian was Senior Portfolio Administrator at The Money Growth Institute. He also worked as an Examiner within the Special Investigations Division of the National Association of Securities Dealers. NASD is the private-sector regulatory body of the U.S. securities industry.

Randolph Houston is a Co-founder and of counsel, FORTKORT & HOUSTON P.C.,

Regardless of whether you’re taking the first steps in launching your business venture, or you have been operating for several years, as a business owner you will be confronted by many legal obligations and issues to which you must conform.
This session will provide you with top tips to ensure your business is legally protected.
Topics covered will include;
• How to ensure you have obtained all necessary licenses and permits
• Tips on preparing and implementing written contracts
• How to ensure that your business complies with a myriad of federal and state employment laws
• How to protect your business’s intellectual property
• When you should turn to an attorney for advice

About the Speaker:
Randolph Houston is a Co-founder of and now of counsel in FORTKORT & HOUSTON P.C., where his practice focuses on trademark (including trade dress and unfair competition) and copyright counseling, clearance, prosecution, policing, and litigation and trade secret litigation. He also has developed a significant music and entertainment law practice, negotiating deals involving major label recording artists, representing individual musicians, actors, artists, and writers, and speaking and writing on entertainment-related topics. Mr. Houston is also an artist manager, representing recording artists, television and film actors, and comedians.

For the entrepreneurial business person, negotiation is an important art to master. Negotiation skills are required in conversations with customers, suppliers, investors and internal stakeholders and staff.
Even at home, these skills can be very helpful for negotiating with family, neighbors and tradespeople!
This webinar is designed to provide you with negotiation techniques that you can use to win business, save money with suppliers, build long-lasting business relationships and, ultimately, succeed in your business venture.

On this webinar you will learn:
• How to develop confidence throughout the negotiation process
• How to create value
• How to negotiate on price when both buying and selling
• How to collaborate with others for mutual gain

About the Speaker:
Sandra L. Vasher is a Harvard Law School grad and former litigator, who has mediated and trained fellow negotiators and mediators at the Harvard Mediation Program and the Harvard Program on Negotiation in Cambridge, and at the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago.

Since 2010, Sandy has been a corporate negotiation trainer and consultant, and her clients have included Fortune 500 companies in the automotive, energy, hospitality, medical, pharmaceutical, construction, and hobby industries, amongst others. She has a certificate in Instructional Design and has developed training programs in negotiation and mediation, as well as strategic thinking and problem-solving, communication, team-building and aboriginal consultation.

Sandy currently lives in the Atlanta metro area with her husband and spoiled dog. She is also a fiction writer. Follow Sandy on twitter @SandyVasher

Do you feel uncomfortable talking about what you do? Do you wonder how you can let others know about your accomplishments without appearing arrogant? If so, this webinar is for you.

Presented by Debby Stone, JD, CPCC, PCC and based upon the tools and concepts from Debby’s book, The Art of Self-Promotion: Tell Your Story, Transform Your Career, this webinar will show you how to;
• Adopt a more empowering mindset about telling your story,
• Unearth the key components of a masterful self-promotion story,
• Develop practical strategies for implementing the art of self-promotion in the context of building your brand, and
• Become a more confident, graceful and authentic self-promoter.

Regardless of whether you are starting a business, moving your existing business forward or seeking to further advance in your career, you will learn the secrets to transforming your professional path by telling your unique story.

About the Speaker:
Debby Stone is a speaker, author and executive coach. Her book, The Art of Self-Promotion: Tell Your Story, Transform Your Career has been hailed as “immensely practical” and “the perfect how-to guide” for professionals. Debby has presented programs at corporations, law firms, business associations, educational conferences and universities. Her speeches and workshops are described as practical, powerful and engaging. Debby is the CEO of Novateur Partners, an executive coaching and leadership development consultancy serving lawyers, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and the organizations in which they work. Novateur is known for combining extensive real-world experience with entrepreneurial creativity to assist its clients in developing practical strategies for success. Prior to embarking on her coaching and speaking career in 2002, Debby practiced corporate law for over a decade. She has also worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company. Debby holds both an undergraduate and law degree from Duke University.

We hear the term “innovate” constantly in discussions on strategy, product development, and operations, but what about when it comes to ourselves and our careers? In the always-changing professional environment, there is only one way to get to reach new HERizons: taking the plunge and innovating in your own career.

HERizonInsights offers interactive virtual events featuring experts who provide valuable insights on the issues that matter most to professional women.

Topics will cover current challenges facing women in the workplace, and the series will offer something for everyone, whether you want to develop your corporate career or launch, build, and promote your own business.

Speakers will field questions during each 60-minute session, sharing insights, offering real-life examples of success, and giving practical, actionable advice and guidance.